Why One or the Other?

Maundy Thursday. Celebration of the Last Supper, washing of feet and the night Jesus was betrayed. We will have no service this evening. We are having a service tomorrow evening, Good Friday. We gathering with other churches and we celebrating the story of the crucifixion. But tonight there is nothing.


The reason is that our congregation will come for one or the other - but not two. How did we come to this conclusion? Experience. We have tried it in the past and you get a barely okay response from one and no response from the other. So we choose. This year because we have invited other churches to the Good Friday services, thus we chose not to have anything tonight.

But is that reason good enough? Is not observing both important enough to have both and help the congregation see essential nature of both? But to have two poorly attended events - what does that demonstrate? In "the old days" you could have both and were expected to have both. In fact Good Friday was three hours long beginning at noon with community churches gathering together and having 30 minutes sections. Businesses gave their employees time off to go to church. Maundy Thursday was for your church family. Naperville no longer resides in Christendom, we are an over scheduled, fast paced pagan community. To have people come to an event of our faith outside the norm of Sunday morning is now a victory. Add to all of this - spring break begins tomorrow for many school which means a mass exodus, and the NCAA tournament has begun. And if you think that last one is irrelevant check again.

I miss the Maundy Thursday worship, sharing communion with the saint. But I also celebrate the excitement we have concerning the gathering for Good Friday. Will we ever do both again? I don't know, but right now the answer for this year is no.